Disclaimer: I don't own J.K.'s stuff blah blah blah etc etc. so on and so forth. I own the original characters and whatnot. I also own a cool pair of boots! And a lot of books and a couple stuffed animals and…..

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"…Shit."

She hadn't noticed it until she had jumped down from the tree. A shaggy dog - (Huskie? Malamute? Wolf?) Standing stiff legged only a couple of feet from her tree.

"H-hey there, nice doggie, nice- "It's growl cut her off and she backed into the trunk of the tree behind her. Hopping to distract it she dug into her satchel and threw the first thing she had, her sandwich, at it. As it caught her offering she scrambled up the tree as quickly as she could, expecting razor sharp teeth at every moment. When she looked down from her perch she saw it sitting docilely at the base of her tree. As she sat looking down at it, it suddenly whined and gave a slight wave of it's tail. Curious she pulled out her other sandwich and tore off a chunk and dropped it. It caught the sandwich and practically swallowed it whole. Hesitantly she climbed down from the tree, her eyes never leaving the animal and when she landed she gently tossed another chunk of her sandwich to it. After it had eaten she held out her hand with the remaining sandwich bit in it, it approached her slowly and took the sandwich warily. She kept her hand where it was so the animal could smell it.

"You're a Wolf, aren't you?" In lieu of an answer it butted her hand gently. When she went home, it followed.

"…. Mixing in the eye of Newt at the end. Any questions? Alright, at the end of the lesson you will bottle a sample of your potion and leave it on my desk. You may start." Professor Fenny gave a sweeping gesture before she sat down behind her desk to work on correcting essays. She was a tall, elegant witch with silky black hair and crimson robes. She had started working at Borealis two years ago and was in her late twenties. The old Potions professor, Professor Jennings, had retired after being the target of botched potion and the cauldron it turned into a cannon ball. Professor Fenny was enthusiastic for her subject and after her first day of teaching so was half the class, the male half. It was a wonder you could walk around the classroom without slipping, they certainly drooled enough for it. There were quite a few girls who resented the Potion's Professor's good looks, but not Topaz. She was nice and she taught her subject well and that's all that really mattered.

The first week of classes had been review and the second week would be the same, it wasn't until the third that they would start learning new things. Right now they were brewing a potion they had learned last year; the chameleon potion. She enjoyed potions; it always gave her a sense of accomplishment when she made a perfect potion. Potions was a fascinating class, the things you could do! It was one of the fields of work she was interested in; the other was magical creatures.

The cauldron of the boy next to her began to give off an acrid odour and he was trying desperately to fix it before Professor Fenny noticed. Casting a look back through the corner of her eye, Topaz saw the boy sitting behind Jared Thompson; Harper Young, was grinning and shoving something in his pocket. Before long Fenny noticed the smell and came over, much to the chagrin of Jared, to see what was the matter.

"Hmmm, the colour and smell suggest Sun Vine, completely ruined the potion. That'll cost points I'm afraid. I'm surprised at you, Jared; you pay more attention than that!" Professor Fenny admonished as she cleared the contents of his cauldron with a flick of her wand. Jared said nothing but looked horrible, his face beet red. Her looks might have inspired effort to do well but it also inspired sabotage. The class continued without further incident and everyone bottled acceptable looking samples of their potions to be graded. As they were leaving Jared was hassled for his potion screw up, whistling and jeering they meandered slowly towards the dining hall for lunch.

Walking more slowly it wasn't long till she was alone in the hallway. Lunch was a lonely affair, no one sat near her; no one would talk to her. It did nothing to improve her appetite to say the least. She ate quickly and left, heading outside to sit until her next period. It was a warm day and the clouds were few and far between and she wasn't the only one enjoying the weather, clusters of students were sitting beneath the shade of the school's apple trees talking, doing homework or other things. Those who were doing other things choose the places where you couldn't be seen easily, if at all. The Quidditch pitch was empty at this time so she went there to stay out of the public eye. She worked on her homework trying to get as much of it done now so she wouldn't have to find another abandoned niche in which to do it in. Voices carried up to her and she looked down to see a group of girls trying to console Jared on his potion fiasco.

"-Not you're fault Jared! I'm surprised something awful didn't happen to you sooner, you know, sitting next to the Grim and all."

"You think I should ask Fenny if she'll move me?"

"Of course!"

"Definitely!"

"Tell her you can't see or something, otherwise she'll be a bitch and keep you by the Grim."

"So true! I mean did you notice how –"

Their voices faded as they continued across the field to the other side where the Magical Beasts class was keeping a unicorn Professor Menagerie had caught. She felt tears prick behind her eyes and the venomous claws of anger digging into her stomach. She was so frustrated; she just wanted to scream at times! How could they be so superstitious? Sure both of her parents had died but that didn't mean she was cursed! She felt more lucky than not, but would they understand that? But no, her parents had died within a year of each other and she was either doomed to the same fate or would cause others to die if they got to close. What better name to call one such as her than, the Grim?

She was too angry to concentrate on her work so she sat there trying not to cry and trying to make it not important until she could bury herself in her next class.

"This place is such a fucking mess! Do you like living like a pig? I'm the only one who does a God Damned thing around here, you lazy little shit! If I didn't do anything you'd be eating of shit covered plates! I should beat you, maybe then you'd get off you're fat ass and do something!"

"… I'm sorry."

"You're so fucking worthless, just like you're damned mother! Get out of my sight, you little bitch!"

"fine."

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Mike Skoaly: You, Sir, are my first reviewer. I'd give you a gold star or a medal or something if I could. When I got the email notifying me that my story had been reviewed I nearly died of shock, especially since it was the one with nothing to do with relevant characters. My reactions were torn between 1.) gushing how much I love you and how grateful I am that you reviewed (a rather nice to too to boot!) and 2.) telling you that if you think that this story is decent then you need help and I'd hate to see what you think crappy stories are like. Putting that aside, Thank you for your review! Btw How on Earth did you ever find this?

Nibbles the Chicken: You, Sir (Madam?), are my second reviewer. Only 10 days from my first review did I get yours. One review? A fluke, unlikely to ever happen again. A second? I believe I caught a glimpse of a purple pig with fuchsia wings flying over the drab landscape that day. Thank you for reviewing! I can't begin to express my pleasure/shock. I would like to pose the same question to you that I posed to Mike Skoaly, How on Earth did you ever find this?

Man I hope you're still going to read this, I didn't mean to scare you away! I don't think this chapter turned out well, (I don't think any of it turned out well to be honest) so I apologize, if you see something I screwed up, tell me. Thanks again for reviewing!

Apara